1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for providing the capability to manage network elements with a large number of units of equipment and facilities, by providing functions such profiling, auto-creation, link aggregation and scoping.
2. Background of the Prior Art
A Passive Optical Network (PON) is a point-to-multipoint, fiber to the premises network architecture in which unpowered optical splitters are used to enable a single optical fiber to serve multiple premises, typically 32. A PON includes network elements, such as an Optical Line Termination (OLT) at the service provider's central office, one or more Optical Network Terminations (ONTs), and a number of Optical Network Units (ONUs) near end users. There are a number of standard types of PON that have been implemented. ATM Passive Optical Network (APON) was the first Passive optical network standard. It was used primarily for business applications, and was based on ATM. Broadband PON (BPON) is a standard based on APON. It adds support for WDM, dynamic and higher upstream bandwidth allocation, and survivability. Gigabit PON (GPON) is an evolution of BPON. It supports higher rates, enhanced security, and choice of Layer 2 protocol (ATM, GEM, Ethernet).
The network elements (NEs) in such synchronous and passive optical networks include MCUs that control the operation of the element. Existing NEs only support a limited number of equipment and facilities. A GPON ONT will need to support more than 200 times the equipment and facilities than existing NEs can support. A need arises for a technique by which NEs with such a large number of units of equipment and facilities may be managed.